


Last Breaths

by hyakinthos



Category: Hunter X Hunter
Genre: F/M, am i the only one who gets emotional over star-crossed chess nerds, im surprised about the relative lack of meruem x komugi around here, sorry for posting this on valentines day you deserved fluff, spoilers through ep 135
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-14
Updated: 2015-02-14
Packaged: 2018-03-12 20:49:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 480
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3354833
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hyakinthos/pseuds/hyakinthos
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Everybody had expectations concerning their own deaths, but, as with all assumptions, they all went oddly subverted in the end."</p>
<p>Just a piece exploring things that go unsaid after neither of them can speak anymore.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Last Breaths

Everybody had expectations concerning their own deaths, but, as with all assumptions, they all went oddly subverted in the end.

Meruem had always pictured himself coughing out his last on a battlefield, an opponent just a tad bit _too_ worthy standing over him and snarling. He figured, although his mind was growing foggy, that that was more or less what had happened. The relative plainness of this small room was nothing compared to the resplendent mausoleum most kings rested in, but it had Komugi and a gungi board inside, so he supposed it fit him. Actions had always spoken louder than opulence to him, anyway.

Still, he didn't want to succumb to this unfamiliar injury just yet. He'd just won some time with Komugi, and he was just coming into a place in his life where he was able to enjoy it properly. If his time was approaching, it was going to have to wait.

And if it had been on her mind at all in her last moments, Komugi would have thought that the cold floor of the bedroom was a comparatively excellent place to die. Slumping over the body of the one she loved was infinitely preferable to falling on the scornful blade of a sword in disgrace.

And so there they were, clutching each other's hands to try and ride out a pain that wouldn't be gone in the morning. Komugi wiped away the blood trailing from her mouth, Meruem shuddered out another breath. He had prior experience enough with fighting battles, but this time his own lungs were staging an especially nasty mutiny.

At the piteous sound of his breathing, Komugi weakly squeezed his hand and wondered why she wasn't crying. She couldn't speak, but hoped he knew that he didn't have to keep scrabbling for life. She knew he clung to the last of it by short, broken fingernails, about to take a fall. There wasn't any shame in it, everyone goes over that unfamiliar precipice eventually. They both knew his time had come too early, but he had fought hard to avoid it and that was enough.

As for herself, Komugi sat cross-legged, peering over the edge. She was a little too dazed, too tired and hurting too much to be afraid of what she couldn't see down there.

Meruem's eyes opened again, just for a second… And then he was gone, and the greatest regret that followed him was that his throat had been too tight and painful to tell Komugi that he was sorry.

Komugi thought she would panic when she felt his hand go limp, but she didn't. She simply kept her coughing, feverish vigil until she, too, collapsed and choked on her last breaths.

The words  _'I wonder if I should have told Meruem that he was winning our game,'_ passed faintly through her mind, and then there was nothing.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed!


End file.
